Madam Speaker, the point that has been raised tonight, and it is an important point, is that when we have a piece of government legislation, regardless of the hour and regardless of the context, one would think the Liberals would be proud of it, yet at committee we heard witnesses on all sides of this issue who were critical of the bill. They did not see it in some cases as actually implementing the treaty. They also saw it as imposing all kinds of red tape for firearms owners.
The Liberals refused reasoned amendments that would have fixed the concerns of law-abiding firearms owners while preserving the basic structure of the system we have in place in terms of arms control, which gives discretion to the minister on whether or not to approve the sale of arms. For any of the controversial arms sales that have been discussed in the House many times, it is still ultimately up to the discretion of the minister as to how they proceed.
The point is that members of the government are embarrassed about their own legislation. That is the point. I wonder if the member could comment on that.